NHL, players, in marathon bargaining session to end lockout

Wednesday

Nov 7, 2012 at 10:50 AMNov 7, 2012 at 10:55 AM

IRA PODELL

NEW YORK — Negotiations between the NHL and the locked-out players’ association lasted deep into Tuesday night, and went well enough that the sides agreed to return to the bargaining table for more talks today.

Both sides kept details close to the vest after the meeting that lasted more than seven hours. That also could be taken as an optimistic sign that the second round of talks in four days went well.

The marathon session — on Day 52 of the lockout — was held at an undisclosed location in New York, at request of the NHL, in order for the sides to be able to talk without any potential distractions.

Not only were NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and union special counsel Steve Fehr there, as they were for a long session by themselves Saturday. They were joined by Commissioner Gary Bettman, NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, a handful of team owners, and 13 players including Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, who has been an active participant in the process.

“We’re hopeful that we’ll start bargaining and we’ll continue bargaining until we find a way to make a deal,” Donald Fehr said Tuesday before talks started. “Sometimes that goes in rather long sessions with short breaks and sometimes you take a few hours or half a day or a day to work on things before you come back together. I don’t know which it will be. We certainly hope we’ll be continuing to meet on a regular basis. I hope they do, too. I’m just not making any predictions.”

Fehr’s brother, Steve, met with Daly on Saturday in a secret location, and neither provided many details of what was discussed, but both agreed that the meeting was productive. That was proven when the sides agreed to quickly meet again Tuesday. There had been no negotiations since talks broke off Oct. 18 until Saturday.

Time is becoming a bigger factor every day that passes without a deal. The lockout, which went into effect Sept. 16 after the previous collective bargaining agreement expired, has already forced the cancellation of 327 regular-season games — including the New Year’s Day outdoor Winter Classic in Michigan.

Whether any of the games that have been called off through Nov. 30 can be rescheduled if an agreement is made soon hasn’t been determined. But the NHL has already said that a full 82-game season won’t be played.